One man wrote, “I learned something from your article: I have no problems.” Several readers offered ideas on how Lowe might beat the disease process. Others shared stories of kindness Lowe showed them when he was climbing.

Zachary Barr, fresh off a six-year stint as a reporter with Colorado Public Radio, jumped into one of mountaineering’s most fiery conflicts last spring when he arrived at Mt. Everest base camp for his first gig with Boulder’s Sender Films.

Peter Sagan of Slovakia riding for Cannondale Pro Cycling speaks during a pre-race press conference for the USA Pro Challenge at the Aspen Institute on August 18, 2013, in Aspen, Colorado. (Daniel Petty, The Denver Post)

ASPEN — Slovakian Peter Sagan has joined his Cannondale Pro Cycling team here at the third annual USA Pro Challenge, but no one really knows why. Sagan is a sprinter. The only sprinting in this week’s race may be to the recovery room. It features more than 40,000 feet of climbing at high altitude. The lone relatively flat stage is the final one next Sunday: eight laps of a 9.3-mile circuit around Denver.

“I’m here for the preparation,” said Sagan who has won four stages at the Tour de France and three at the Vuelta a Espana. “I want to do well in the last part of the year. There’s Montreal (Grand Prix), the World Championships. I’ll see how far I come. I’m here doing well at altitude training.”

The kindness of strangers rescues this unnamed climber as he nears the top of the multi-pitch Kennedy’s Gully route in the Ouray Ice Park. This video has swept the interwebs in the last week. I love how the climber is so cool with nary a curse as the ice dissolves beneath his crampons. While he wouldn’t have decked if he fell – he appears to be dragging a lead rope — no telling where his last protection was placed and if it would have held a whipper on what looks like rotting ice.